A private network is a network located behind a firewall/network address translation (NAT) and/or port address translation (PAT) device. It is desirable to test private network devices located behind a firewall. However, there must be some mechanism for allowing test traffic to traverse the firewall.
If the firewall is performing only NAT functions, then a mapping of a single public IP address to a single private IP address can be created and stored in a NAT table allowing a range of ports to be opened in the firewall. The open ports allow test traffic from the public network IP address to the private IP address to traverse the firewall and reach the destination endpoint. Large numbers of users can be simulated and tested using the open ports in the firewall and addressing traffic to the private IP address. However, opening ports in the firewall creates security issues. In addition, if the firewall also implements port address translation (PAT), port translation must be done by the PAT function for each simulated user so that an entry that maps the public UDP (IP/port) address to the private UDP (IP/port) address must be added to the PAT table. This restriction effectively blocks the running of performance tests where hundreds of users must be simulated to achieve the desired throughput.
Accordingly, a need exists for improved methods, systems, and computer readable media for initiating and executing performance tests of a private network and/or components thereof.